NATURE

New Delhi: If you have sensitive skin and you're wondering if Holi will make your skin worse, go for natural colours, use moisturiser in abundance and do more to protect your skin on the festival of colours, which will be celebrated on Friday.
Pankaj Chaturvedi, senior consultant dermatologist at Medlinks clinic,...

New Delhi: The Oil Ministry has suspended ONGC Director (Technical) Shashi Shankar over allegations of irregularities.
The ministry on Tuesday wrote to Oil and Natural Gas Corp that a disciplinary proceeding against Shankar is being contemplated.
"The competent authority in exercise of the powers conferred under ONGC Conduct, Discipline and Appeal Rules,...

New Delhi: Investigators claim to have recovered inputs on the Finance Minister's Budget speech from the people arrested for leaking documents of the Petroleum & Natural Gas Ministry.
One of the secret documents recovered is about the input on National Gas Grid. Some of the recovered documents pertain to Coal and...

New Delhi: India's annual infrastructure output growth slowed to a three-month low of 2.4 per cent in December, mainly dragged down by a sharp slowdown in electricity, coal and cement production, government data showed on Monday.
The output had expanded 6.7 per cent year-on-year in November.
The infrastructure sector, which comprises coal,...

Washington: In a pioneering feat, researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and University of Colorado in Boulder have discovered an invisible shield some 11,000 kms above Earth that works against the harmful radiation belt.
High above Earth's atmosphere, electrons whiz past at close to the speed of light. Such ultra-relativistic...

Washington: Future astronauts on Mars will rely less on supplies from Earth and may even be able to create rocket fuel and 3D printed structures by using locally sourced minerals, according to NASA.
To enable missions deeper into space than ever before, NASA is investing in technologies for In-Situ Resource Utilisation...

Moscow: Vladimir Putin on Friday compared the construction of a controversial natural gas pipeline to love, saying Europe needs to show its affection for the Russian project.
Speaking on a visit to EU aspirant Serbia about Brussels' reluctance to back the Russia-led South Stream gas pipeline, Putin said Moscow could not...

New York: Facebook Inc. is launching a tool that lets users notify friends and family that they are safe during or after natural disasters.
The tool, called "Safety Check," will be available worldwide to the social network's 1.32 billion users on computers and mobile devices. This includes the basic "feature" phones...

New Delhi: Ice cream brand Natural on Wednesday opened its first store in Delhi and said it will open 100 outlets in the next five years across the country.
With the launch (of outlet in Delhi), the brand marks its foray into north India and brings its signature wholesome goodness to...

New Delhi: Mumbai-based Natural ice cream brand is set to bring its signature wholesome goodness to the capital with the opening of its store in Greater Kailash II on October 15.
The brand has been making ice creams using only fruits, dry fruits, chocolates, milk and sugar, with no preservatives or...

Kiev: Ukraine warned that it will have to adopt deeply unpopular energy savings measures this winter should Russia fail to lift its suspension of natural gas sales to the Westleaning exSoviet neighbour.
Russia in June halted gas exports to Ukraine after Kiev balked at paying higher prices that Moscow demanded...

Mumbai: Fertilisers Association of India (FAI) on Tuesday demanded allocation of domestic natural gas to make fertilisers without any distinction of products. "There is a need for allocation of domestic gas for production of fertilisers without any distinction of products, because there is no distinction between urea and complex fertilisers...

Mumbai: Gas leakage has been reported from Mahanagar Gas Limited's underground pipeline at Worli junction in Mumbai. People have been evacuated from the immediate vicinity of the spot as a precautionary measure.
The leakage was reported when some drainage work was underway at the Worli junction. Fire brigade officials have...

New Delhi: All nuclear power plants (NPPs) in the country are safe and can withstand natural calamities like earthquakes and tsunamis, the government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
"Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, safety review of all Indian NPPs was conducted by task forces of NPCIL...

New Delhi: On the eve of his visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said Bhutan was a "natural choice" as his first foreign destination because of the "unique and special relationship" and his trip would focus on making development cooperation "even more effective".
In his predeparture statement, Modi said relations...

New Delhi: Sending out yet another loud and clear signal of his intent for "more governance, less government", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday scrapped four Standing Committees of Cabinet. The Committees were on Management of Natural Calamities, Prices, World Trade Organisation Matters and UIDAI Aadhaar.
Aadhaar was one of the...

Baghdad: Iraq's Kurdish region slammed legal action filed by the central government against Turkey, saying on Sunday it was illegitimate and likely to fail, the latest in worsening ties between Baghdad and Kurdistan.
The Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources statement came just days after Baghdad's Oil Ministry filed a request for...

New Delhi: Narendra Modi's landslide victory gives him the mandate to deregulate diesel prices as well as raise natural gas rates with a clear road map towards free pricing to cut subsidies and shrink the budget deficit.
With the biggest election win in 30 years, the Modiled National Democratic Alliance is...

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday deferred the hike in gas price till after elections following the Election Commission's directives on Monday. The Oil Ministry was set to double the price of natural gas from April 1.
Taking note of an Aam Aadmi Party complaint that the move to hike...

A 6.7-magnitude earthquake struck off Nicobar Islands on Friday, the US Geological Service reported.
The quake hit at a relatively shallow depth of 6.2 miles (10 km) about 68 miles (110 km) southeast of Mishap, Nicobar Islands, in the Indian Ocean, the agency said.
An official at the provincial disaster management control...

CJ Madumipta Puri runs a workshop called 'Trash to cash' a unique opportunity for differently-abled people to make a living by producing organic colours from waste flowers picked up from temples and other places.
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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has granted custody of a minor boy to his father, who was accused of murdering his wife, after observing that in the absence of a mother, a child's natural guardian is the father.
A division bench of Justices PV Hardas and AS Gadkari was hearing...

In the field of quantum physics, you could call this a droplet in the bucket. Physicists in Germany and the United States said on Wednesday they have discovered an exotic new type of particle that they call a quantum droplet, or dropleton.
Writing in the journal Nature, they said it behaves...

Shortly after being sworn in as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Harish Rawat on saturday showered praises on his predecessor Vijay Bahuguna, saying he salutes him for doing an exemplary job during the midJune natural calamity that shook the whole nation.
"I salute Bahuguna for doing a splendid job during the...

London's Natural History museum is offering adults a chance to enjoy their very own night at the museum. Guests can enjoy a dinner, stand up comedy, horror movies and also a chance to sleep amidst dinosaurs.
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Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, the head of a Russian state forensics agency that tested samples taken from his body said on Thursday, according to the Interfax news agency.
The Russian finding was in line with an assessment by French scientists who said earlier...

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday ruled out reversal of the decision to double natural gas prices from April 1 next year and said that the notification on this will be issued shortly.
"Absolutely, there is no question of reversing the decision to hike natural gas prices, as proposed by...